Heartbeat
by bakedvause
Summary: Four times that Alex falls in love with Piper, and one time that she tells her. One shot. Slight A.U


_Four times that Alex falls in love with Piper, and one time that she tells her._

* * *

Nicky promises to keep watch for the two of you as you fit your bodies together like the curved edges of a complex puzzle. So many pieces of your personalities and backgrounds seeming to somehow meld together through the most curious of times.

Like, being in prison.

You're lying serenely in your bed with your arms, startlingly pale in the fluorescent lights, wrapped comfortably around Piper. Piper, whose favorite pastime was writing you letters while you were across the globe on business all those years ago. When she speaks of Larry as if she can't imagine the knife she twists further into your gut when she seems to forget that she left you and ended up with him ten years ago, she says that he is a journalist. It may have been a while, but you know Piper well enough to note the slight downturn of the right corner of her lips. She is disappointed. Which is understandable, because Piper has always like big, flashy gifts and trips to Cancun and extravagant gestures.

You can't imagine that the woman she enters Litchfield Federal Prison as is anything more than a mask, a projection of who she thinks she ought to be. You doubt that she could be as self indulgent as she'd like with a man like Larry. You gaze into her eyes while she speaks and you want to ask her just why the _fuck _she thinks you want to hear about the man who has had her heart for far too long, but she is so stunningly beautiful when she goes on rambling tangents and you want nothing more than to watch, or kiss her, or love her_,_and then it hits you just as wonderfully as it did all those years ago.

You are so devastatingly, heartbreakingly in love with this woman laying curled into your embrace and she slowly trails off in the middle of her sentence to ask why you're crying, but you shake your head and kiss her slowly, languidly, and Piper has always known when not to pry. You love her even more for remembering that sometimes silence is just as powerful.

* * *

The two of you sit shoulder to shoulder in the cafeteria and you have a grin on your face that threatens to split you in two. Piper is practically vibrating in her seat beside you because she has a surprise for you and it's your birthday and you've never been more affected by secondhand excitement in your life, you don't think. Nicky and Morello slide into the space across from both of you, and your best friend's...whatever they are, pulls out something from under her shirt wrapped in foil double the size of your hand.

You glance at Piper with curiosity blazing behind your irises, but she just looks at you like you put the stars in her sky and gestures for you to open it. Your fingers reach for the small package and unwrap it away from the prying eyes of the, admittedly not so tight, security. Your movements slow as the gift becomes more apparent and the pricking behind your eyes is not from sadness. Piper has remembered all of your favorite chocolate bars and had them melded together, likely by Red, in the shape of a three layer rectangle: two king sized Kit-Kats on the bottom, three Hershey bars in the middle, and two Snickers on top. Nicky jumps a bit as she remembers the piece of paper she rolled up as a makeshift candle and she holds it above the creation with her perpetual wide grin while taking a bigger risk imaginable by lighting it with her own self-made lighter.

Morello glances over toward where Pornstache is strategically distracted by Red talking his ear off about god knows what, and she gives the three of you the thumbs up. You blow out the lit piece of paper with a slight shake of your head and giddy laughter bubbling up your throat. You watch Piper and Nicky hastily, but discreetly, wave away the small amount of smoke with a swelling heart and blushing cheeks. You look over at the blonde woman who has had your heart even through all the time the two of you have been separated.

"You did this?"

She smiles a bit and stares into your eyes with that look again, the look that makes you feel fifty feet tall and unbreakable. Her shoulder nearest yours rises and falls bashfully before replying, "I had some help." So you thank all three of them, giving Piper a look that says you'll thank her properly later.

And you do.

When she writhes beneath you in the chapel, panting your name into the air and breathing life into it that you would never have felt otherwise, you are in love with her. You are in love with her before this, too, but it is times like this when she reacts to your touch as if you are the reason this chapel is holy, you feel it ten fold and never want to let her go.

* * *

You're in a Belgium hotel room beneath three layers of white bed sheets with your legs intertwined and Piper's head tucked trustingly beneath your chin. Your fingers are gently massaging her scalp as she sleeps soundly against you. Your eyes bore blankly into the wall as you think about, well, Piper. Her wide, playful eyes and enticing smile that she directs at you right before doing something so spontaneously Piper- such as fucking you in the little area behind the ice machine in full view of anyone who might happen to turn the corner of the hallway. Her hand clamped over your mouth to keep you from making too much noise and the other one busying itself between your legs with a skill and familiarity that made you see stars.

You blink several times and attempt to clear the fog that had understandably clouded your brain at the memory. The two of you have been together for five months now and maybe it was selfish to ask her to come with you on an illegal business trip, but you miss her insanely when you're gone and she isn't technically partaking in these illegal activities. You know it's bullshit, so does she, but apparently she misses you too, and so here she is. You feel a smile tug at the corners of your lips at the thought that the woman curled into you like you're her favorite blanket is actually yours. She doesn't _belong_ to you, of course. No one belongs to anybody; however, Piper is yours in that she chose you and she continues to choose you, over and over again.

The rush of space shuttles careening through your stomach makes you giddy in the best way and your other arm, wrapped beneath Piper and absently tracing patterns on her back, beneath her sweatshirt, tightens around the blonde slice of paradise that stole into your life and shone her light all over it. This is the first time you realize that you are absolutely, head over heels in love with Piper Chapman. It hits you less like a semi-truck and more like a slow descent into hot bath water, warm and beautiful. To your personal annoyance, your eyes actually cloud up at this realization, and for two very opposing reasons; the first being that everyone you have ever loved has ended up disappearing from your life one way or the other. The second reason is that you are so undeniably happy to be in love with someone as heart-warmingly special as Piper. You didn't fall for some asshole who only wants you around when her boyfriend pisses her off, or some woman who uses you to piss off her parents.

You fell for Piper.

Beautiful, charming, Piper.

The same woman who is currently stirring in your embrace and blinking sleepily up at you. After her initial freshly-woken confusion subsides, she is cracking that heart-stopping smile at you and curling further into your arms, as if that were possible. Her arms wind more firmly around your waist and she turns her head slightly to place a sweet kiss at the base of your neck. You feel another at your pulse and a following one directly beneath your jaw. A shiver snakes through your body as she reaches the spot right below your ear and then at your cheek.

You feel her lips ghost over to the corner of your mouth and she presses a gentle kiss there as well. Finally, you grow impatient and move to give an infinitesimal turn of your head and capture her pink bottom lip between both of yours. She lets out a satisfied hum in the back of her throat as your lips practically melt into each other's and suddenly her right hand is inching up the front of your shirt and yours is snaking down beneath the back of her sleep shorts to grip her ass. Her breath hitches in your mouth and you use her parted lips to slip your tongue inside, eliciting a very throaty groan from the woman in your arms. To your joint displeasure, breathing is sort of important, and so the two of you part with burning lungs and blown pupils.

She looks at you like you're her sun, her moon, and stars.

Your eyes cloud again because she's your entire cosmos.

* * *

It's Christmas and you're in a small condo in New York, paid for in full by you, much to Piper's complaint. You know she only opposes out of politeness because you know Piper. She loves to be pampered and you love to spend money on her.

Illegal money, yes, but it all buys the same things.

It's because you know that Piper loves to be pampered with cliché gifts that you start off Christmas Eve the way you do. She enters your home with her arms full of shopping bags, gifts for her parents if you heard her correctly over the phone, and she immediately spots a trail of fucking _rose petals_ _and Hershey's kisses _covered in green wrappingleading in a winding trail to your shared bedroom. She drops the bags by the bedroom door in heart-thrumming disbelief at the dozen roses laid out on the bed in two rows- six on top and six on the bottom.

In between the rows of flowers are Hershey's Kisses shaped into a heart with a red, square sheet of paper the size of her hand that only has two words on them, words that make her heart leap into her throat with the shiver that tears through her spine:

_Clothes. Off._

Piper feels a grin make its way to her lips as she sees the rest of the trail leading to their closed bathroom door. While quickly shedding her clothes and jewelry, she nearly shakes with excitement. With a deep breath, Piper makes those few steps across the beige carpet to turn the handle on their oak bathroom door. When she enters, her heart falls from her throat to her stomach and stops beating all together. Piper is honestly blinking back tears because you are the love of her life and she isn't being dramatic, she really isn't, but she has never felt so much love for one person in her entire existence as she does right now.

Candles adorn every surface, burgundy and jade, and there you sit in your square shaped bathtub with the jets going and your damp hair cascading over your shoulders. She finally notices the music playing faintly in the corner of the room and realizes that it's one of her favorite songs. You wonder if she could smile any wider than she is at this moment. A look of utter adoration makes its home on her face and she saunters over to the edge of the tub before stepping one leg in, followed promptly by the other.

You're grinning and she's kissing you and _god_ her hands are _everywhere_ and you're pretty sure this is the best Christmas gift you could have possibly given her, which is unfortunate because you haven't even given her the actual present yet, but you're sure she'll love that one just the same.

She pulls away and gives you that _look_.

The one that you will later describe as her looking at you as if you put the stars in her sky.

The one that makes your heart thump heavily in your rib cage and your lips ache to press against hers.

So they do. And you love her.

* * *

It's a regular day. The only odd thing is that Kubra gives you the day off and Piper doesn't feel like meeting with her parents, so you both sleep in. This is fine by you because you get to stay in bed with Piper laying on top of you with her head cushioned by your breasts and her lips parted in slumber. Her eyelids are flickering back and forth with whatever dream she's having and you hope that it's pleasant. Your fingers stroke up and down her naked spine and a smile spreads across your lips at her scent of shampoo and vanilla body wash from the night before. It's hot outside and the windows are open to share a lovely breeze through the room. One of your legs pokes out from beneath the covers while Piper's feet are tangled in them.

The burgundy bed sheets contrast nicely with your pale skin and you peer around Piper's head at that distracting train of thought until you feel her stir above you. She changes positions slightly, her head moving to face the opposite side and her hands tightening their grip on the front of your shirt. Her legs move of their own accord to press against either side of your naked hips in the closest thing to a koala curling itself around a tree as Piper could possibly manage while firmly asleep.

Your low chuckle rumbles in your chest at how this adult woman turns into a small animal while unconscious. Your heart beats in your chest at an increasing rate because this is what makes you happy. _She _is who makes you happy. You love every single thing about Piper Chapman. The freckle on the back of her neck, the birthmark on the inside of her left thigh, the way she calls your name when she wakes up and you're in the bathroom and not pressed up against her, the spot right below her navel that makes her breath hitch in her throat and a whine exit instead.

You want to somehow convey all of the feelings that she evokes in you with words; however, there aren't any words in existence that accurately describe just how much you love the woman laying on top of you right now. So you settle with its most rudimentary form and feel the three words get caught in your chest with their weight. People say it all the time to everything and everyone, but you mean these with a different magnitude when referring to Piper.

So you treat it as such when she finally parts her eyelids and turns her cerulean eyed gaze on you, a sleepy grin on her lips as she places a kiss on the tip of your nose.

"Morning" she murmurs around an earth-stopping smile.

"I love you."

The blonde blinks twice as if somehow her vision affected her hearing, but after a beat and an influx of heat to her cheeks and adoration to her heart, she responds how you pretty much imagined she would.

"I love you too, Al. So much." She whispers and smiles with her beaming heart translated through the curve of her lips as she presses them against yours, and you're both melting into each other over and over again.

* * *

**A/N: **Yes, I'm an ass for putting _Velocity_ and _Come and Stay _on hiatus. Peace offerings with one shots until I find the motivation to finish those, maybe? Don't forget to review, love you guys x


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